Photo: STCC

Thed Björk heads Volvo 1-2 in first STCC race of 2015

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Thed Björk headed a Volvo Polestar Racing 1-2 in the first Scandinavian Touring Car Championship race of 2015 at the new airport circuit in Skövde, Sweden.

The reigning champion started from pole and made a perfect start, with team mate Fredrik Ekblom slotting into second place. Ekblom closed slightly on Björk in the beginning of the race, but made a slight mistake by braking too late in the hairpin and lost some time.

The two matched each others pace throughout the race with the distance between the two being 1.4 seconds in the end.

Mattias Andersson made a solid effort in third position for Dacia Dealer Team, although distanced by over 16 seconds by the Volvo drivers.

While the top three positions were stationary, the fight for fourth was intense. WestCoast Racing’s Fredrik Larsson made a strong start and managed to get past Team Tidö driver Richard Göransson in the start with some contact.

But the BMW driver lacked pace and started to drop back in the race. Norwegian Kia newcomer Kevin Aabol had a strong pace in the early part of the race and managed to get past Larsson. But the two made contact later in the race, with Aabol turning Larsson into a half spin, a move Aabol was penalised with a drive through penalty for.

Larsson was able to recover to finish fifth behind Daniel Haglöf who drove a strong race to finish fourth for PWR Racing. Emma Kimiläinen finished sixth ahead of Erik Jonsson in seventh, with Aabol dropping to eighth after his penalty.

Four-time STCC champion Göransson had a dreadful first race, suffering from a puncture early on and losing one lap on the leaders. Things went from bad to worse as he rejoined the race, going wide in turn one and hitting the barriers. Göransson managed to limp back into the pits to retire.

Team Kia had a tough first race of the year as well with the penalty for Aabol and retirements due to technical problems for both Emelie Liljeström and Erik Johansson.

The second STCC race of 2015 starts 15:05 CET, with Erik Jonsson on pole position thanks to the reversed grid order.